Running on Empty?

The Feeding of the 5,000

 Jesus is grieving for his cousin John the Baptist and wants some time to pray alone, but the crowds continue to follow and make demands on him. He has compassion on the crowd and heals their sick. He teaches them and after a long day he feeds them, rather than sending them away. When Jesus was ‘running on empty ‘ he still has compassion and love.

 

It reminds me of the story of the widow’s jars of oil and flour in the Old Testament – the ones that felt empty but always had just enough to make bread for that day. I wonder if Jesus was thinking of that story when he taught his disciples to pray “and give us today our daily bread”? Was he teaching us to pray and position our hearts in such a way that even when we feel totally depleted we would still be moved with love to serve?

 

The thrust of this parable for us as followers of Jesus is to understand there is always enough in us to minister one more time – no matter how tired, how sad, or how low on energy because we don’t minister to others out of our own strength. It is just that we are more aware of that fact when we are on rock bottom.

We need this reminder to see in Jesus that, even on empty, you can still treat needy people kindly and compassionately. For when we see Jesus deal with people so tenderly it helps us to do the same